Roman Reigns On Retiring Taker: "It's Bittersweet" but "I Did What I Said I Was Going To Do"

Roman Reigns was interviewed by ESPN's Jonathan Coachman immediately following WrestleMania last night. As expected, the conversation focused entirely on the fact that Reigns had probably just retired The Undertaker.

Roman said that his respect for the Undertaker makes his victory taste "bittersweet."

"It almost feels like a loss, you know what I mean? Because, I’ve said this for the past three or four weeks, I’ve got nothing but respect for the Undertaker. If you’ve been a part of this business, and you know, everybody’s got respect for that man. But at the end of the day you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do. As a young man, as a family man, as a provider, I’ve got to go out there and fight for mine, and that’s what I did tonight."

He said he had to do so much more than normal in order to put Taker down and keep him down.

"Typically, by the time I’m connecting with Superman punches and I hit a spear, it’s done. Anything after that, it feels like torture. But that’s the type of competitor the Dead Man is. He won’t give up. He doesn’t know when to quit. That’s not in his programming. So I had to beat it into him. So that’s what I had to do. I had to dig deep and do something I didn’t want to do, and that’s take out a wounded warrior. But I feel like I did it the right way."

There can only be one guy that retires The Undertaker, and though being that guy might raise the ire of The Dead Man's fans, there's no doubt it's a tremendous honor to be last to face The Phenom. Coachman asked Reigns what was going through his head.

"To be honest, in this moment, it’s so fresh, you know what I mean? It’s hard to digest at this point. But the only thing I can say is I did what I said I was gonna do. This is my yard now. I wasn’t messing around. And the only thing I can do now is continue to reign."

It's unclear what's next for Roman, though most believe he's on a collision course with new Universal Champion Brock Lesnar.